The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday called for Department of Health Minister (DOH) Lin Fang-yue (林芳郁) to step down if he cannot bring the enterovirus outbreak under control.
“The Cabinet should do something about it. If not, Lin should take responsibility and resign,” DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) told a press conference.
Yeh also brought up remarks Lin made two weeks ago, when he said the “enterovirus was out of control and all we can do is pray.”
Lin later apologized for the comment.
As of Tuesday, 245 serious enterovirus cases, including eight fatalities, had been identified this year. Most cases have been children under the age of five.
The Cabinet activated an epidemic emergency response center on earlier this month to deal with the outbreak.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) suggested that the age group affected by the outbreak could start expanding and urged Lin “not to pray any more but to begin making crucial decisions.”
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and Lin Fang-yue could not understand how parents feel because neither of them have young children.
DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to get involved.
“It seems to me that the Cabinet cannot handle this. The officials involved have no idea what they are doing. I think the president should help,” Tien said.
Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) questioned Lin Fang-yue’s statement on Monday that the outbreak was beginning to subside, asking whether the fact that no new cases had been reported over the weekend was only because epidemic control personnel were not in their offices.
If so, the DOH should clarify the situation immediately, he said.
The enterovirus outbreak began in the south earlier this year and has spread northward.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS